Fear
by DeadlySerious
Summary: Sequel to Confidence
1. Chapter 1

**One**

Sgt. Grayson of the Guardian Units of Nations, checked for heat signatures. The reading showed the same as it always had, one target, moving, but not identifiably human. The images were always far too blurry to tell details, but it was too small for any normal person. As for what he could see of the building, little more than a shack, with one entrance, a door on the front, and one lone heat signature inside. The helicopter lowered enough to drop him and his team, before taking off and pulling back towards regulation safe distance, but it hadn't been quiet. If there had been a greater threat they would have gone for the element of surprise, but with one target, force of numbers would suffice. This gave Grayson a moment of realisation. Something had been nagging him since the mission had been set. One heat sig. A team of operatives. No information. And a question. Why were seven men needed? Grayson refused to let this put him off, probably just precaution. A charge had been brought for breaking and entering, but it wasn't needed. The door wasn't locked. The Sarge stood before the door, shooting a hole in it with his pistol, before throwing a smoke grenade through. Just precaution. His team moved through the smoke, so far without resistance, flipping on thermal imaging in time to see. Nothing. No targets. Whatever he'd seen from outside had given off heat, so where was it now. The smoke was starting to clear, so he flipped up his goggles, hoping to see something without them, and yet still there was no sign of anything even vaguely threatening. He would have ordered the house searched if there had been anything to search, but the room was empty. It didn't even have lights, just a hole in the roof, and you don't get more basic tha… there had been no hole. They would have dropped in through it if there had, but there had been no hole. Cursing himself for not seeing it sooner, he ordered his men back outside, the house was in the middle of no-where, whatever had bored through the roof couldn't have gone far. His men were already outside, surrounding the house and checking the surroundings. His Corporal, a man named Eales, hardly the bravest man in G.U.N. but with an admirable determination to push through his fear to protect anyone in his command, stood at the door, ready to give a SitRep. In the next few seconds, bravery counted for nothing, as the bullets from above tore through all that, no doubt going around the building as well. Grayson couldn't see anyone else, just Eales with a momentary look of surprise on his face, before it became nothing more than a feature on a slab of meat. He was dead before he hit the floor. Since the bullets had come from the roof, Grayson moved straight for the door, whoever had fired just killed his Corporal, and probably the rest of his squad, so Grayson had no intention of bringing the target in like he should. This mission wouldn't be over while there wasn't a bullet in the bastard's head. A shoe landed on Eales' face. It was white with a rim of red, and black at the back. Sprouting from the shoes, were two thin black legs, which met at the owners' body, with a short sharp tail. His arms were as thin as his legs, and his hands coated in white gloves. From behind all Grayson saw of its head was the spines, each with red fur atop it. He hardly saw the gun until the creature threw it away, useless, the sight of it spurring him back into action, his body finally responding, and his hand completed the movement for the gun bringing it up in one swift motion and pulling the trigger twice, but not before the creature disappeared from in front of him. Still clutching his pistol with white knuckles, he stepped outside to survey the scene, looking at the blood stained corpses that now surrounded him. Grayson had spent all his career building defences, becoming cold to overcome losses, and the horror of killing. Now his team was gone, and something that just wasn't right had disappeared before him. As far as Grayson was concerned, the logical, rational choice at this point was to scream, emptying his lungs of emotions uncovered for the first time in years. He felt desperate to keep screaming, as if maybe he could force them out, the terrible things that now filled his heart. Breakdowns had always been an obstacle to him. If someone broke down he pulled them back, it was all part of the job description, and it was good to think that someone might one day return the favour. Now it was a reality, and there was no-one left to help.

His help heard the scream. Pilot officer Doyle made the executive decision to ignore protocol and pull his chopper towards the sound. He didn't believe that he'd get any stick for it, it standard procedure for helicopters to double back towards infantrymen under extreme circumstances. Doyle had never been more aware of his role as troop carrier now. No gunner, no guns, just a pistol he was barely qualified to use in an emergency box under his seat. He didn't see any enemy on the ground, but he afterwards wished he had, it would have been better than the corpses littering the floor. With a collectedness that his CO would have been proud of, he set his helicopter down, released the canopy, and brought his emergency box with him. Acting by rote, he pulled the first –aid kit from the top, and the gun from its compartment underneath. He holstered it, moved to check to see if anyone was alive, and noticed one of the bodies without blood. He recognised the squad's leader and rolled him onto his back. The man was in shock, and Doyle didn't have the first clue what to do. When it had just been bodies he had simply followed procedure, detaching himself from what he was doing. Now the pressure was to keep this man alive and the only thing he could do was bring him back. Adrenaline lent him the strength he needed to carry the Sergeant's barely conscious body to the helicopter. Picking up the radio, he broadcasted onto all G.U.N. frequencies.

"This is Lima Hotel Golf broadcasting on all frequencies; I have wounded and am RTB. Patient appears to have sustained no physical injuries, but is going into a fatal level of shock. No treatment has been applied. I am too far from base to return before patient … suffers long term effects. Please send medical teams." His reply came instantly, reporting that help had been dispatched and would be there ASAP.


	2. Chapter 2

**Two**

Grayson hated research. It wasn't where he belonged, a war wasn't won in a file, and victory came from the barrel of the gun. So it said something that he used every waking moment he was allowed out of a hospital bed, blunting his reflexes and instincts in order to pull documents, both physical and virtual, from anywhere he had clearance and more than once from places where brass didn't exactly approve of him going. When he had a job, he did it, and he could deal with anything that came his way from higher up. His life had melted into a lifeless slush of words. Project Shadow. A characteristically unimaginative name, next to shadow wolf, shadow hawk, and shadow eagle. Say what you like about G.U.N. but they know how to give clichéd names to important missions. This is what he read:

**Classified Alpha Alpha One**

**This file must not leave the G.U.N. Main HeaDQUARTERS**

**sTATION sQUARE**

**A matching copy will be kept in g.u.n. main headquarters**

**prison island**

**rEADING THIS FILE WITHOUT PROPER CLEARANCE WILL BE TREATED WITH THE MAXIMUM PUNISHMENT ALLOWED BY THE LAW.**

Gerald Robotnik was a scientist of unprecedented intellect. For forty-two years he worked with G.U.N. in order to provide it with a large quantity of its current military hard-ware. He was known to be making money from outside sources throughout this entire career, advancing all areas of human life, and due to the unique nature of his intellect this was tolerated. This allowed him to amass a substantial wealth. This money was put towards a new project, code-named ARK, a space station where he would continue his research in peace, intending to take with him only a handful of scientists, and his granddaughter Maria Robotnik. This project was approved and supplemented by funding from G.U.N. who demanded a level of control over ARK. This was granted as expected, and a small section of ARK was designated to be temporary living quarters for a garrison of troops, in an attempt to confirm Gerald's intentions. After their minimum time aboard ARK was nearly over, a routine report mentioned Project Shadow. It was an unknown, but this was not unique, and was allowed to continue. The garrison reached the end of their time and left. Three weeks later an unauthorised communication was recorded between Gerald and an unknown life-form. Triangulation located this life-form as being aboard Black Comet, and the matter of Project Shadow, as well as part of it's nature, a failing attempt at creating "The Ultimate Life-form" was discussed. The conversation left no doubt as to the destructive capability of Project Shadow, and it was left for G.U.N. to come to the conclusion that Gerald had gone mad. G.U.N. units were deployed, with orders to kill all aboard the ARK, but Gerald had already predicted the attack and left. A target, suspected to be the result or prototype of Project Shadow was found under orders to protect Maria. The creature escaped with Maria's help, at the cost of her own life. After the soldier who killed Maria and witnessed the suspected Project Shadow escape had given his report, he took his own life, due to the guilt of having killed an innocent, while failing to destroy a high value threat. Gerald Robotnik was captured after landing on Earth, along with Project Shadow. Both were taken to Prison Island, where Gerald made repeated and occasionally successful attempts to escape his cell, before making unknown adjustments to Project Shadow and returning there. His final words were a threat to the world. Project Shadow could not be destroyed, and exists to this day on Prison Island. 

Underneath this was a picture, undoubtedly depicting what he had seen from multiple angles.

Grayson was pretty amazed that the first thing he thought of was that he knew the name Robotnik. It didn't take much to find reports of Ivo Robotnik, and he soon had a name. Alex Sands' report left much to be desired, important facts skipped around gracefully, but leaving a mark to anyone who was looking as closely as Grayson. Alex hadn't worked in weeks, and Grayson wanted to know why. He pulled the home address and went for a visit. With civilian clothes, his own car, and his own time, he would avoid any attention. He could do what he wanted with his time, G.U.N. didn't care. He rang the doorbell, broken, so he knocked the knocker instead. The door opened and Alex Sands stood there, looking down on him from one step up.

"We need to talk" Grayson didn't wait for introductions, just charged in and found the first flaw in his dramatics. He didn't know where to sit. Annoyingly, Sands lead him through, obviously taking charge of the situation, taking advantage of Grayson's moment of confusion. Grayson sat on the sofa he couldn't afford, and cursed himself for not taking more time to consider what he was going to do. Before Sands could once again take the situation further from his grasp, he blurted out a question.

"What do you know about Project Shadow?" The question took Sands aback. After a moment something changed in his eyes, he knew something, but it wasn't as much as Grayson had hoped, otherwise he would have seen it sooner.

"I've heard the name before, if you give me some more to go on, I may be able to help you. I need to know what you know before I give you any of my knowledge on the matter." This threw Grayson a little. He needed any information he could get, but Sands had just said "you first", and now he was even considering it. He had come here to get information, not give it away just because someone asked him to. On the other hand, it seemed perfectly possible that this guy already knew everything there was to know, and was just testing him. He decided the best course of action would be to throw it back. "Project Shadow is an experiment run by G.U.N. I know that it involves the creation of a Space Station called ARK." It had been all he could think of on the spot, mixing a lie with the truth to test if Sands had any knowledge at all.

"Nice try, Project Shadow is not run by G.U.N., I know that much, now you want to tell me anymore?"

And so Grayson did. Every detail he knew. The black creature, the details listed in the files, about Gerald Robotnik, Maria and the Ultimate life-form. The only thing he left out was how his squad had died. Show how emotionally motivated he was and all credibility would dissipate in an instant. Sands took a moment to take this in. Eventually, he returned the favour. He must have realised that they knew a lot more between them then either of them did separately, so he fired back with astonishing stories of creatures similar to the ones Grayson already knew of. As far as Grayson was concerned, this meant that a permanent and long term relationship had been set up between a member of G.U.N. and a non-human, and no-one knew about it. He had more than the ounce of humanity required in him to ask to meet this guy, and to his great surprise, Sands remained forthcoming by inviting him to do just that.

Grayson had met the hedgehog. His surprise, he pondered, must have been infinitely less than Sands' when he had first found out. At least Grayson had come in through research and preparation, which made it all the more bearable. In the end, it was his duty towards his late squad which drew the greatest line between them. He wanted the world to know every detail about how and why his team had died. And so the meetings started. Notes and reports telling all on the amazing subject, recon teams were deployed, based on his claims, and the backup of the file about Project Shadow. The whole thing was revealed to the public. Sonic the Hedgehog was finally out.


	3. Chapter 3

**Wow, sorry you still don't have chapter Three, don't worry, Four's nearly finished. By the way, If you read it, please review it, it's the least you can do after all.**

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><p><strong>Three<strong>

Sonic the Hedgehog was finally out and he loved it. He had just less than seven months of freely roaming cities behind him by the time everything went drastically wrong. He had explored a brand new jungle, made entirely of metal and concrete. He had had his qualms, but whether organic or synthetic, nowhere could be without problems. His misgivings had been reflected back at him. He was like nothing humanity had seen before, and had been outlawed for the start, but he didn't even notice police or G.U.N. when they hunted him down. Eventually they stopped, simply because they gave up. They had no reason to try, when your bullets can't keep up with him. Just less than seven months.

The field Sonic walked through shook. That could never have made any sense; after all _it was connected to Earth._ But shake it did, twice in fact, before any other sign of anything wrong came up. Falling from the sky, grey, humanoid and rippling with muscles were all aspects of the creature Sonic saw, but they weren't the first he noticed. The first thing that interested him was its anatomically impossible size. Standing at a height which would double a large house easily, it hit the ground. It was completely naked save for its right eye, which was covered by a massive screen, resembling half a pair of red goggles. Landing horribly close to the hedgehog, it surveyed its surroundings, and when its vision fell upon Sonic, its goggle changed to green. Its foot covered the relatively short distance between them in moments, the creature already putting Sonic to the test as he sprinted out of its shadow an instant before the foot came down, and as soon as it did, Sonic turned and ran straight up it's leg, building up speed before diving into a roll, slicing in to its skin, as he did huge laps around it's chest, still moving up for the head. Its attempts to squash him ended with it hitting where he had been moments before, always just behind the blur which spun around him. Sonic soon reached the bald head, and proceeded to spin up the cheek, now covered in the enemies red blood, until he reached the top where he stood, taking a moment to admire the view. What he saw was a bi-plane in the distance, but approaching fast. The Tornado. It fired off its first volley of rockets, not pausing before sending bullets and lasers that any G.U.N. scientist would have sold their soul for a glimpse at. Sonic jumped off the head and went straight down the chest of the creature, drawing its attention from the Tornado and all its munitions. He dodged the first of Tails' shots by jumping to the left. A grey fist came out of nowhere. While Sonic certainly could have dodged right, the flames from the explosion still burned, and his hesitation lost the battle for him. He didn't remember the hit, or the falling, merely deduced them from the pain and the fact that he was rolling on the floor. With as many broken bones as he now had, consciousness was not something that he valued, and the half-second it took him to get rid of it was more than he would have liked.

The world was orange. That wasn't right, why was the world orange? His focus was entirely out of action, but as his brain rebooted, Sonic started to recognise the Tornado as it pulled close to the creature Sonic was just beginning to recognise. He'd been fighting, and then there's been some pain. He screamed. It had hit him like lightning, the pain returning as soon as he thought of it. Using muscles without the capability to contract, and bones smashed to dust, he stood up. Energy he didn't have took him his first step, and he stood for a moment, stunned by the knowledge that the step he had just taken hadn't won it. How could such a strain not be the end of the battle? He kept going, not even adrenaline supporting him now, but a sheer force of willpower. The pain was nothing now; he was nothing, a machine that would keep going. He pushed himself into a run, moving the infinite distance up the creature. He knew what he had to do. He reached its head and jumped, spinning into its eye. The energy that would have gone to his ears was needed for vital functions, so he didn't hear its scream, or feel the blood, or anything for that matter. The job had been done, and nothing to keep him going, he slipped away, even as it fell towards the surface.


	4. Chapter 4

**Four**

The Tornado flew low over the face of the downed foe, low enough for Alex to drop out onto its gore soaked nose, almost losing his grip on the surprisingly slippery surface. He jumped off and moved to pull Sonic from the otherwise empty eye socket, and dropped off the side with him. Tails brought the Tornado down metres away, disembarking before it had even stopped to rush to his friend. He was given no time to act on the hedgehog, who was artfully decorated in the creatures blood, before another creature, almost identical to the first landed unannounced and uninvited, crushing the Tornado without even noticing. Cursing their luck, Tails picked up Sonic and took off, instinctively flying low, hoping to stay beneath its line of sight, until they could get behind it, straining with the effort, while Alex moved to run between its legs. While he wasn't in the best favour with G.U.N. at that moment, he was left no choice but to contact them, pulling out his radio, and yelling into the microphone.

"G.U.N. HQ this is Private First Class Alexander Sands, I need air support on my location right now, I don't care what you send so long as it's got bloody big guns." Then something unprecedented happened. He was met by silence. Repeating himself word for word, he screamed again ""G.U.N. HQ this is Private First Class Alexander Sands, I need air support on my location right now, do you copy?" This time a response crackled through, "…is G.U.N. H … we read y… port at this ti… peat no air su… time, we have one… uad in your… oute no...over" The message had been difficult to understand, but the overall meaning had been clear. They were abandoning him. By this point he had moved under the things legs, the sun blotted out by its shadow. From no-where, an explosion lit up the back of the creature, followed by three more. Instinctively, he dropped into a roll, as the creature went down screaming. It wouldn't stay down for long, but it was now clear where the explosions had come from, three tanks rolled into view. Alex couldn't help but laugh, "one…uad in your… oute now" He'd been trying to tell him of a squad of tanks that was en route. The chances of the backup being so close were slim, but it was possible, on a day like this. Over the horizon the city was burning. Alex took off at a dead run. Bullets from the tanks' MMGs let rip, tearing through the skin of the creature turning it's head to see the threat. Alex reached the first tank just as it fired again, another shot blowing a hole in the enemy's flesh. Alex climbed the rungs on the side of the machine, pulling the hatch open just in time for Tails to drop Sonic through, following just after and leaving Alex to clamber into the crowded space inside. Cpl. Geoffrey Hanrahan pulled the tank into a reverse, as his fellows fired off their rounds and joined him. The ensuing explosions ensured that the creature wouldn't be getting up.

"Welcome to Station Square Sir" The sight was familiar to Sands. The last time he had seen it Station Square had been destroyed by a flood, and the same refugee camp had been erected. That was recent enough that people had just known what to do, moving into the nearby countryside to set up makeshift shelters. G.U.N. had stepped in to control the populace, keeping food which was rationed out carefully. More importantly, they had to supress the riots which were always threatening to take off. Sonic was in a secure military bivouac. The worst of the blood had been rinsed off, and he was lying on one of very few very precious blankets. Then there were the guns. Despite it's name, G.U.N. had a gun problem. A few sidearms were all they had, from officers who had had the foresight to bring one, and with a few of them brought out empty they had less clips then weapons. While enough to control people, they were a large enough group to attract attention, and it would be worse than impossible to stop one of the attackers now. Sands offered his services in retrieving some proper gear, but apparently Jeeps had been sent to find what was left of G.U.N. HQ and retrieve some big guns, and all of the armoured units who had been out of the city had been recalled to the new camp. Now that they had their first tanks on hand defence of the camp became a viable option. There were also soldiers trying to contact G.U.N.'s home satellite defence network above Station Square, and Tails had gone to lend his expertise. All this left Sands in the middle of a warzone with nothing to do but wait and think, desperately trying to get out of his own head.

Sonic woke to see Tails' panic stricken face above him. At first he didn't register the words gabbling from his best friend's mouth. Slipping back out of consciousness, he registered one horrible word.

"Ark"


	5. Chapter 5

**Five**

The light flashed for 0.9 seconds before the corresponding button was pushed. If beauty is in the eye of the beholder, than in the eye of the man observing the symbols that pulled themselves onto the screen, they were splendour incarnate. G3. Those were the characters which spelled survival. A G3 military space station was the most powerful thing in the skies known to man. Defended by layers of undetectable and impenetrable shields, and armed with an array of weapons both for offense and defence, most of the internal structure consisted of one omnipresent super-computer. The computer itself was so refined that at no point in history did any one man understand the power that went into fuelling it, or the lines of code that it manipulated in far less than a second. The rest of it was storage, which was what could give G.U.N.s forces on the ground the edge. Tanks, rifles, artillery, and transport ranging from small unarmed vehicles to space capable fighters. Within minutes a commanding officer was on hand, who started listing off his complete shopping list for keeping a town alive during extra-terrestrial invasion. Within minutes of the order being sent, G3 began automatically loading transport ships for the long journey down, and weapons pods prepped themselves for firing. The next job tackled was getting the satellite itself to work for them. Stations were set up, with plans for them to be manned 24/7 with teams, controlling every aspect of the satellite, including radars scanning for life, massively telescopic cameras searching the immediate vicinity, and an assortment of controlled lasers and missiles should trouble arrive. Soon the first pods were arriving, full of weapons and ammo, but the defences didn't feel really ready until the thud of a tank landing heralded the arrival of the first transport. This was followed swiftly by more and more vehicles landing, with the transport ships setting themselves down just to the side.

Tails walked in to find Sonic pacing the room. He had healed like he does everything else, fast. The moment he saw Tails he started talking.

"Last time I saw you, what were you saying."

"Dr Robotnik and Shadow the Hedgehog have returned to Space Colony Ark." Sonic stopped. He consciously tried to not show anything, but he couldn't stop his breathing from quickening, his eyes from widening, and his heart from going just a little faster, and Tails had known Sonic long enough to pick up the slightest change. Now he didn't like what he was seeing.

"Sonic, what do we do?" Sonic had no reply. He slowly walked outside and looked at the people. Most of them were scared of aliens, staying inside save for getting food and water, ignorant of the weapon floating through space. Sonic went back inside and sat down.

"We've lost. Any moment and this entire planet will be wiped from existence."

"No Sonic we can't lose. You can't give up, then what chance is there, please Sonic do something. Just. Move. Please."

"No, I can't give up, but how can I fail to. If they've gone to the Ark then they know we can follow them, which means that they're prepared. If they have the Chaos Emeralds that weapon will be charged and ready to fire whenever he wants it."


	6. Chapter 6

**Six**

For the first time in his life, Sonic had sat for a complete journey in something that wasn't the tornado. Tails was worried that by now, Sonic should have at the very least been bored, if not already inside the ruins of Station Square, heroically pulling people from rubble or, something. As it happened he chose instead to sit there, watching. When they reached the city, he took his eyes down from the sky for the first time, staring at the dying that the marines were pulling from the rubble. He never looked at the dead. As the vehicle approached an unmistakeable noise, its weapons spun up, readying for what they would find around the next corner. As soon as they took it the bullets started flying in a barrage that sent the hulking creature they knew they would see stumbling. Beneath where its fist had been a moment ago laid a marine, holding a gun in his hand aiming upwards to where his oncoming death had been. Sonic's eyes narrowed.

Something was different about him on the way back. Tails considered that he looked thoughtful, and it sparked a fresh hope. After they arrived back in the camp, Sonic disappeared, said he had some questions to ask and took off. Tails presumed he would be heading to the command tent to talk to someone there, but found nothing to reward his search, so went to wait for Sonic to return. Or for that matter, for the planet to be shattered into pieces, whichever happened first. Never beaten before in a race, Sonic made this time no exception, pulling into the tent slowly.

"What was it" was, of course, the obvious vocalisation of tails' curiosity.

"It was the man, aiming at the fist that would crush him, something didn't seem right about that image" this was all sonic had to say on the subject "Tails, please inform someone to get some transport ready, we're going to the Ark."


End file.
